Claim: A video shows a recent instance of Awami Muslim League (AML) founder and former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed crying outside a judicial court.
Fact: The video is from February 2023 and shows Rasheed being escorted by police to the courts in Islamabad in relation to defamation cases filed against him.
On 17 July 2025, a user on Facebook posted a video allegedly showing the founder of the AML and former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed crying outside court. The first line of the caption reads “Today the best ✌”, claiming it to be a recent instance.
Most recently, the former Interior Minister called for “people to pray for a change” as he spoke to media personnel outside a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court. Rasheed was there to attend a hearing for the attack on the army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) on 9 May 2023, a case in which he was indicted in December 2024. The claim likely suggests that the video shows him breaking down in this instance.
Notably, the longtime Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ally also distanced himself from the party’s anti-government protests that took place in Islamabad in November 2024.
Fact or Fiction?
To verify the authenticity of the video, Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search of its keyframes. This led us to a video shared by Dawn on Facebook on 4 February 2023. This video is an instance of the one in the claim, only shot from a different angle. It shows the moment Rasheed stumbles as he is escorted by police and then apparently sobs in the arms of a security official who wears a red jacket with the symbol of the Pakistani flag. A comparison of the frames of this video and the one in the claim is shown below:
As can be seen above, Rasheed appears to sob into the arms of the same security official whose red jacket displays the Pakistani flag on the arm. Both pictures also show the word “COMMANDO” printed on the jacket, right beneath the flag. The man is also seen wearing a black cap and having the same style of facial hair in both frames. Rasheed’s own positioning in the frames is the same too, as he appears to fully lean into the official’s arms.
The caption of the post by Dawn reads as follows:
“Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed stumbles while being escorted by police to the Islamabad courts on Saturday.
In the footage, he can be seen walking and then stumbling before he’s caught by a police official. Rashid then appears to sob in his arms. The policeman is seen holding him encouragingly.”
Since the caption did not offer any context on why Rasheed was being taken to court, we conducted a Google search for “Sheikh Rasheed February 2023 court”. This led us to an article by Dawn, dated 4 February, which stated Rashid had been booked on multiple charges of defamation against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) members Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The article shared a video (also dated 4 February), posted by Rasheed’s X account, that showed Islamabad police escorting him to court on these charges. While the video does not show the moment Rasheed sobs into the officer’s arms, it does show the same infrastructure with light green walls and black signboards as the previous video by Dawn. The moment Rasheed stumbles can also be heard, with many of the media personnel loudly inquiring if he was alright.
Hence, the video in the claim does not show a recent instance of Sheikh Rasheed crying outside court.
Virality
The video has amassed over 22 K likes on Facebook.
Conclusion: The video in the claim is from February 2023, and shows Sheikh Rasheed being escorted to court in Islamabad on charges of defamation against members of the PPP.
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Background image in cover photo: The Express Tribune